Did Tadej Pogačar just share his secret power data on Strava?

Tadej Pogačar may have just revealed all of his training power zones in his latest Strava post.

The world champion’s power data has long been the subject of speculation, with some previously estimating his functional threshold power (FTP) to be around 415 watts.

Typically, Pogačar hides his power numbers on his Strava files; however, his latest training ride, shared on Wednesday, in which he called for greater respect from fans, left all the data uncovered to his more than 1 million followers.

According to Strava, and information from the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider’s power meter, Pogačar averaged 299 watts on his 132km ride from Valencia to Calpe in Spain, at one point reaching a maximum power of 800 watts.

What’s more interesting, though, is the power zones Strava appears to have calculated. According to the platform, Pogačar’s zones are the following:

Zone 1 (recovery): 0-237 watts
Zone 2 (endurance): 238-323 watts
Zone 3 (tempo): 324-387 watts
Zone 4 (threshold): 388-452 watts
Zone 5 (VO2 Max): 453-516 watts
Zone 6 (anaerobic): 517-645 watts
Zone 7 (neuromuscular): 646+ watts

Although this data is split into wide ranges, which may not be completely accurate, the numbers appear to align with previous estimates of Pogačar’s power. The theory that his FTP is 415 watts, for example, seems to coincide with the middle of his ‘threshold’ zone.

Likewise, Pogačar told The Peter Attia Drive Podcast in 2024 that his Zone 2 power, at the time, was between 320 and 340 watts. He added that he can maintain this at a heart rate of around 150 beats per minute. This again appears to support the zones detailed on Strava.

In the same interview, Pogačar warned against being rigid with power zones. "If you're doing a five-hour ride, your zone two after five hours may not be your zone two anymore,” he said. "On the flat you will not recover, and five hours of riding 320-340 [watts] for me also means that the next day I’m not riding my bike. So when going on the flat for longer, I drop my power to 290-300."

The world champion also explained that he finds power meters “unreliable”, due to outside temperatures and possible calibration error, and tends to ride to heart rate. “I’ve been training with a heart rate monitor since I was 12 years old,” he said. “I could go by heart rate only, but it’s always good to compare heart rate to power.”

Strava determines power zones by taking different percentages of a user’s FTP – the highest power in watts a person can maintain for an hour on the bike. Pogačar’s numbers, according to Strava, are based on data from a power meter.